1969
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
| Years: | 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 |
| Decades: | 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s |
| Centuries: | 19th Century - 20th century - 21st century |
| 1969 by topic: | |
| Arts | Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television |
| Science and technology | Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science |
| Countries | Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa |
| Other | Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming |
1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday
- For other uses, see Number 1969.
- For the movie, see 1969 (movie).
- For the Velvet Underground live album, see 1969: The Velvet Underground Live.
Contents |
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Events
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January
- January 1 - Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News Of The World
- January 5 - The Derry Riots leave over 100 people injured
- January 6 - Cheryl Winters begins her career at the Federal Reserve in Jacksonville.
- January 10 - After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published
- January 12 - Super Bowl III: the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts
- January 14 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 25
- January 15 - The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5
- January 16 - Ten paintings defaced in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art
- January 16 - Student Jan Palach sets himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. Three days later he dies.
- January 20 - Richard Nixon succeeds Lyndon Johnson as President of the United States of America
- January 24 - Martial Law declared in Madrid, the University is closed and over 300 students are arrested
- January 27 - 14 men, nine of them Jews, were executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel
- January 27 - Reverend Ian Paisley, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, is jailed for three months for illegal assembly.
- January 30 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police
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February
- February 1 - Birth, in Paris, France, of Denis Cheyrouze, French media guru.
- February 4 - In Cairo Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress and takes command the next day
- February 8 - The last issue of the Saturday Evening Post hits magazine stands
- February 13 - FLQ terrorists bomb the Stock Exchange in Montreal, Quebec
- February 24 - Launch of the Mariner 6 Mars probe
- February 24 - Tinker v. Des Moines Independant Community School District (Case against pure speech in schools)
- February 25 - George Jones marries Tammy Wynette
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March
- March 1 - Major league baseballer Mickey Mantle announces his retirement.
- March 1 - Dad's Army episode Operation Kilt is first broadcast
- March 1 - During a performance at Miami's Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for exposing himself during the show. Morrison is officially charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent behavior, open profanity and public drunkenness.
- March 1 - John Kerry officially leaves active duty in Vietnam
- March 2 - In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted
- March 2 - Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River
- March 3 - In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
- March 3 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module
- March 10 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea
- March 13 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module
- March 17 - Golda Meir of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, becomes Prime Minister of Israel
- March 19 - British paratroopers and Marines land on the island of Anguilla expecting resistance from the "Republican Defence Force"’ of self-declared "President" Ronald Webster. Locals bid the soldiers welcome instead
- March 28 - Dwight D Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC.
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April
- April 1 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF
- April 4 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart
- April 13 - Queensland: The final day of the Brisbane Tramways after 84 years of operation.
- April 20 - British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
- April 22 - Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping
- April 28 - General de Gaulle steps down as president of France after having suffered a defeat in a referendum the day before.
- April 29 - First anniversary of the Broadway production of the musical Hair is celebrated with free concert at Wollman Skating Rink
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May
- May 10 - Zip to Zap, a harbringer of the Woodstock Concert, ends with dispersal and eviction of youth and young adults at Zap, North Dakota by the National Guard.
- May 10 - The Battle of Dong Ap Bia, also known as the Hamburger Hill, begins in Vietnam War
- May 13 - May 13th Incident: Race riots occur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- May 16 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus
- May 17 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins to descend into Venus' atmosphere sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure
- May 17 - Tom McClean completes the first solo transatlantic crossing by a rowboat
- May 18 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 launches
- May 19-20 - French Foreign Legion paratroopers land onto Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in a middle of a civil war
- May 20 - National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California
- May 22 - Apollo program: Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 15,400 m of the moon's surface
- May 26 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming first manned moon landing
- May 26-June 2: John Lennon and Yoko Ono conduct their Bed-In at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, and record the song "Give Peace a Chance."
- May 29 - Mashina Vremeni russian rock band official birthday
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June
- June 2 - In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Centre opens its doors to the public for the first time
- June 2 - Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne collides with the US destroyer Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea - 74 US sailors dead
- June 8 - After the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) cancels the program, the last Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour airs
- June 8 - President Nixon and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet at Midway Island. Nixon announced that 25,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by September.
- June 20 - Georges Pompidou elected President of France
- June 23 - Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States by retiring chief Earl Warren.
- June 24 - United Kingdom and Rhodesia sever diplomatic ties
- June 28 - The Stonewall riots mark the start of the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.
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July
- July 5 – Assassination of Mboya, Kenyan Minister of Development
- July 7 - French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government
- July 8 - Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made
- July 10 - Trimaran the Teignmouth Electron of Donald Crowhurst is found drifting and unoccupied - Crowhurst might have committed suicide
- July 14 - Football War - after Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadorean workers in Honduras, tens of thousands are expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, taking effect on July 20
- July 18 - Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother who was in the car with him, dies in the incident
- July 20 - Apollo program: The human race, represented by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, lands on the Moon. Apollo 11 lifted off for the moon on July 16 and returned safely on July 24
- July 25 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war
- July 30 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with US military commanders
- July 31 - Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in the UK
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August
- August 4 - Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, US representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail
- August 5 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers)
- August 8 - Fire in the Bannerman's Castle in the Hudson River - most of the roof collapses
- August 9 - Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murder five people including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger. The next day The Family would murder Rosemary and Leno LaBianca
- August 10 - Manson family kills Leno and Rosemary LaBianca
- August 12 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes a speech to the United Nations in which he asks them to deploy a peace-keeping mission in Northern Ireland.
- August 13 - Serious border clash between Soviet Union and People's Republic of China
- August 14 - British troops deployed in Northern Ireland
- August 15 - The Woodstock Festival of music begins in upstate New York lasting three days and featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era
- August 17 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars)
- August 21 - Part of the al-Aqsa Mosque is destroyed by arson
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September
- September 1 - A coup in Libya oust King Idris and brings Col. Moammar Qaddafi to power
- September 2 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.
- September 5 - My Lai Massacre: Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai
- September 22 - 25 Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco after al-Aqsa Mosque fire (Augusr 21) condemns Israeli occupation of Jerusalem
- September 28 - Social Democrats and Liberal have received a majority of votes in the German parliamentary elections and decide to form a common government
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October
- October 1 - In Sweden, Olof Palme is elected Labour party leader, replacing Tage Erlander as prime minister on October 14
- October 9 - In Chicago, Illinois, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection to the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24)
- October 15 - Vietnam War: Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States
- October 16 - The ("miracle") New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, four games to one.
- October 17 - Willard S. Boyle and George Smith invent the CCD at Bell Laboratories. Today, this technology is widely used in digital cameras.
- October 21 - Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany
- October 21 - Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup
- October 31 - Wal-Mart incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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November
- November - Creation of ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet
- November 3 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon addresses his nation on television and radio asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies
- November 9 - Group of Amerindians lead by Richard Oakes try to seize the Alcatraz island but are repelled
- November 12 - Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre - Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story
- November 13 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic "March Against Death"
- November 14 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon (landed on the Moon on November 19)
- November 15 - Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea
- November 15 - Vietnam War: In Washington, DC, 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war
- November 17 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides
- November 19 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon
- November 20 - Vietnam War: The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam
- November 20 - Richard Oakes returns with 90 followers and offers to buy the Alcatraz for $24 (he leaves the island January 1970)
- November 21 - U.S. President Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972 Under the terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free
- November 21 - The first ARPANET link is established
- November 24 - Apollo program: The Apollo 12 spacecraft splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon
- November 25 - John Lennon returns his OBE to protest the British government's support of the US war in Vietnam
- November 28 - The Newcomers stopped airing on the BBC
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December
- December 1 - Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II (on January 4, 1970, the New York Times ran a long article, "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random")
- December 2 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle to New York City.
- December 4 - Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot to death in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
- December 12 - Piazza Fontana Slaughter in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana). A U.S. officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett involved.
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Undated events
- Parker Morris Standards became mandatory for all Council housing in the UK.
- Summer saw the invention of Unix
- In the autumn, the first four nodes of the ARPAnet went up
- ACM SIGGRAPH founded
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Ongoing events
- Vietnam War (1964 - 1975)
- War of Attrition, between Egypt and Israel, which lasted until August 1970. This conflict was characterized by escalating artillery duels, air raids and commando missions
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Births
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January
- January 2 - Christy Turlington, American fashion model
- January 2 - Tommy Morrison, American boxer
- January 3 - Michael Schumacher, German race car driver
- January 5 - Marilyn Manson, American singer
- January 14 - Jason Bateman, American actor
- January 14 - David Grohl, American drummer and composer (Nirvana)
- January 16 - Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
- January 17 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film director
- January 20 - Skeet Ulrich, American actor
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February
- February 1 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer
- February 3 - Retief Goosen, South African golfer
- February 5 - Bobby Brown, American singer
- February 11 - Jennifer Aniston, American actress
- February 12 - Hong Myung-Bo, South Korean footballer
- February 17 - Tuesday Knight, American actress
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March
- March 1 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
- March 1 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
- March 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
- March 19 - Connor Trinneer, American actor
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April
- April 6 - Bret Boone, baseball player
- April 10 - Billy Jayne, American actor
- April 11 - Cerys Matthews, Welsh singer
- April 17 - Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian actor
- April 19 - Susan Polgar, Hungarian chess player
- April 25 - Joe Buck, baseball and American football broadcaster
- April 25 - Darren Woodson, American football player
- April 25 - Renée Zellweger, American actress
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May
- May 2 - Brian Lara, West Indian cricketer
- May 3 - Daryl F. Mallett, American author and actor
- May 7 - Eagle Eye Cherry, Swedish-born musician
- May 10 - Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch soccer player
- May 13 - Nikos Aliagas, French-born television host
- May 14 - Cate Blanchett, Australian actress
- May 15 - Emmitt Smith, American football player
- May 16 - Tracey Gold, American actress
- May 16 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
- May 18 - Martika, American singer
- May 21 - Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian journalist (d. 2000)
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June
- June 11 - Steven Drozd, American drummer (The Flaming Lips)
- June 14 - Steffi Graf, German tennis player
- June 15 - Oliver Kahn, German football player
- June 18 - Pål Pot Pamparius, Norwegian guitarist and keyboardist (Turbonegro)
- June 24 - Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
- June 25 - Matt Gallant, American television host
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July
- July 5 - John LeClair, American hockey player
- July 10 - Gale Harold, American actor
- July 18 - Masanori Murakawa, Japanese professional wrestler
- July 20 - Josh Holloway, American actor
- July 24 - Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer
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August
- August 2 - Fernando Couto, Portuguese footballer
- August 6 - Elliott Smith, American musician (d. 2003)
- August 9 - Troy Percival, baseball player
- August 13 - Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
- August 18 - Edward Norton, American actor
- August 18 - Christian Slater, American actor
- August 19 - Matthew Perry, American actor
- August 28 - Jack Black, American actor
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September
- September 2 - Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey, American singer
- September 5 - Dweezil Zappa, American actor and musician
- September 9 - Rachel Hunter, New Zealand model and actress
- September 13 - Shane Warne, Australian cricketer
- September 24 - Donald DeGrate, Jr., American music producer
- September 25 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (d. 2002)
- September 25 - Hal Sparks, American actor and comedian
- September 25 - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Welsh actress
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October
- October 1 - Igor Ulanov, Russian hockey player
- October 3 - Gwen Stefani, American singer (No Doubt)
- October 8 - Julia Ann, American porn actress
- October 10 - Brett Favre, American football player
- October 13 - Nancy Kerrigan, American figure skater
- October 14 - David Strickland, American actor (d. 1999)
- October 17 - Ernie Els, South African golfer
- October 19 - Trey Parker, American television producer
- October 20 - Juan Gonzalez, baseball player
- October 30 - Clay Enos, American photographer
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November
- November 4 - Matthew McConaughey, American actor
- November 7 - Michelle Clunie, American actress
- November 7 - Hélène Grimaud, French pianist
- November 7 - Bryant H. McGill, American poet
- November 11 - Carson Kressley, American fashion expert
- November 12 - Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician
- November 17 - Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player
- November 18 - Sam Cassell, basketball player
- November 20 - AQi Fzono, Japanese composer
- November 21 - Ken Griffey, Jr., baseball player
- November 29 - Mariano Rivera, Panamanian Major League Baseball player
- November 29 - Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dutch footballer
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December
- December 15 - Rick Law, American illustrator and producer
- December 21 - Julie Delpy, French actress
- December 23 - Martha Byrne, American actress and singer
- December 28 - Linus Torvalds, Finnish computer programmer
- December 30 - Jay Kay, English singer (Jamiroquai)
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Deaths
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January
- January 4 - Violet and Daisy Hilton, English conjoined twin actresses (b. 1908)
- January 8 - Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)
- January 19 - Jan Palach Czech student protester (suicide) (b. 1948)
- January 25 - Irene Castle, English dancer (b. 1893)
- January 29 - Allen Dulles, American director of the Central Intelligence Agency (b. 1893)
- January 30 - Georges Pire, Belgian monk, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1910)
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February
- February 4 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)
- February 4 - Fred Hampton, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1948)
- February 4 - Mark Clark, Black Panther (shot by police) (b. 1896)
- February 9 - Gabby Hayes, American actor (b. 1885)
- February 20 - Ernest Ansermet, Swiss conductor (b. 1883)
- February 23 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
- February 26 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1895)
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March
- March 4 - Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film empresario (b. 1881)
- March 11 - John Wyndham, British author (b. 1903)
- March 21 - Pinky Higgins, American baseball player and manager (b. 1909)
- March 26 - John Kennedy Toole, American author (b. 1937)
- March 27 - B. Traven, German writer
- March 28 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (b. 1890)
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May
- May 4 - Osbert Sitwell, English writer (b. 1892)
- May 14 - Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (b. 1888)
- May 19 - Coleman Hawkins, American musician (b. 1904)
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June-December
- June 21 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
- June 22 - Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
- July 5, Walter Gropius, German architect (b. 1883)
- July 18 - Mary Jo Kopechne, American campaign aide to U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1940)
- July 24 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
- August 9 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- August 9 - Sharon Tate, American actress (murdered) (b. 1943)
- August 17 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
- August 27 - Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)
- August 27 - Erika Mann, German writer (b. 1905)
- August 31 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
- September 2 - Ho Chi Minh, President of Vietnam (b. 1890)
- October 4 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer (b. 1912)
- October 12 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
- October 21 - Jack Kerouac, American author (b. 1922)
- October 21 - Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)
- October 30 - Pops Foster, American musician
- November 12 - William F. Friedman, American cryptanalyst (b. 1891)
- November 15 - Iskander Mirza, first President of Pakistan
- November 18 - Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., American politician (b. 1888)
- December 12 - Magic Sam, American musician (b. 1937)
- December 31 - George Lewis, American musician (b. 1900)
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